Sermon - Midweek Advent II - Sola Fide

Last week we spoke briefly about how the Lord saves us by forgiving our sins through Jesus Christ completely as a gift, so in a word, we spoke about grace. We are saved completely by grace, through no merit of our own, only by the free gift of God in Christ Jesus. But how is it that we receive the benefits of God’s grace? Faith. We are saved through faith in the promise of Jesus as the one who dies to give eternal life, not through our works, and yet our works are always present in faith.

How is it that we have faith? Is it the result of our reasonableness? Or maybe the fruits of an emotional appeal? Not in the least! Faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit! The Lord, He works faith in our hearts to believe. No matter how reasonable or intelligent we might be, our faith has all to do with God creating and sustaining faith in our lives.

So what is faith? The author of Hebrews sums it up, saying “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is more than simply a historical knowledge. There are universities filled with professors who are experts in biblical history, have dedicated their lives to its study, and yet don’t have faith. Faith is even more than just believing that God exists, demons believe that God exists, yet they are still spending eternity in hell. 

Faith doesn’t just have knowledge of a history, but faith believes and applies the promises of grace to oneself. Faith believes that Jesus forgives our sins by His death. Faith is the confidence, the assurance, the conviction that all of what Jesus does is for our good. Faith consoles and encourages a terrified mind, that’s something that historical knowledge could never do.

You could say that faith is the application of biblical knowledge to oneself. So it’s one thing to believe that God is real, even the demons believe that. It’s one thing to believe that Jesus was a real historical person and was crucified on a cross, even atheist professors believe that. It’s one thing to see Jesus crucified, have his blood spilled on you, hear Him speak, even the unbelieving soldiers who crucified Jesus experienced this. But it’s another thing entirely to apply everything that Jesus did to yourself. That’s faith: applying all of Jesus’s actions to yourself.

That’s what Abraham did. The Lord spoke to him and told him “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” When Abraham doubted, the Lord reassured him, saying “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them. So shall your offspring be.” Abraham’s response to the Lord’s promise was faith, he believed the Lord and trusted that the Lord’s words for Him were true. Most importantly, Abraham believed that God’s promises were for him and his offspring. Because of his faith, the Lord counted it to Abraham as righteousness.

This is what is known as the “for you” of faith. Everything that God does is for you and is applied to you. When Jesus was nailed to a tree, He did it for you. When He shed His blood, He did it to atone for your sins. When Jesus was baptized in the river, He was baptized in order for you to be baptized into Him. When Jesus gives us His body and blood in the Lord’s Supper, He assures us that this is for you for the forgiveness of your sins. Everything Jesus does is for you, and faith is that which believes and applies all of this to you. 

So when we think of faith, we think of three objects. Firstly: the promise. The promise is that Jesus forgives us of our sins and will bring us to heaven to live with Him there. This promise is the object of our faith. Faith needs to believe in something, therefore the Christian believes in the forgiveness of sins on account of Christ. Secondly, Grace. The promise of forgiveness of sins is a free gift, it is given to us solely by grace alone, by no merits of our own do we earn this promise. Faith therefore believes and trusts that the promise is delivered to us free of our merits, by grace. Thirdly, Christ’s merits are the price for our atonement. The promise that Jesus forgives our sins, as a free gift, are won for us on account of Jesus’ merits, on account of Jesus’ payment. Thus faith believes that Christ has paid for our forgiveness as a gift for us. 

Faith in and of itself is nothing. Faith is only as good as the object in which faith is placed. So your faith is placed in Christ’s merits alone, your faith is given such a firm foundation that you need not ever doubt. This is wholly unlike any other promise upon the earth. Among mankind, we make many promises to each other, some of which hold true and many of which falter and break. When one places faith and trust in the promises of man, your faith is only as strong as the one making the promise. 

Likewise, if your faith were based upon your merits, your works, then your faith would only be as strong and trustworthy as you. Furthermore, if your faith was in your works and in your merits, you wouldn’t be saved by grace. “Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as grace but as his due.” Since our works leave us nothing to boast in, our faith would be hollow and empty, and the certainty of our salvation would be as firm as a toddler's lego building block tower. 

But instead, our faith is not in our works, rather our faith “believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” This means that your faith is guaranteed, as Paul writes a few verses later in Romans “That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed.” That your faith is in the grace of our God and Father of us all means that you have sure and certain assurance and confidence that the promise of forgiveness for you is valid.

Your faith believes that God loves the world by giving up His only-begotten Son, for you, so that you will not perish but have everlasting life. None of this is your own doing, so that you may not boast, and so that you have confidence and certainty in your salvation. I want to impress that upon you this evening, that you can be certain of your faith and your salvation because it all relies upon Jesus’ blood and righteousness!

Your works avail you none! But let me be absolutely clear about this as well; your faith is not without works. James comments about our reading from Genesis 15, saying: “Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.”

James is not saying that our works save us, but he is saying that “as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” When a person’s body is separated from the soul, the organs cease to function and the body begins to rot. Without a soul, a body dies. Likewise, without good works that flow from faith, faith dies. Works may not say save us, but works are a part of faith, and faith does save us, therefore our works must accompany our faith. 

This is why when Jesus talks about judgement day He often talks about works. After John 3:16 which everyone knows and loves, Jesus talks about judgment and condemnation, saying that Jesus is the light of the world and He exposes people’s evil works and wicked things for what they are. But Jesus is also the light of the world who reveals people’s truthful works which are done in God. Yes, when we do evil, we do it according to ourselves, according to who we are. But when we do good, we do it according to our faith, it is carried out in God.

So our works will never save us. But the works that we do in God are true because God is true. Only that true God who promises to forgive our sins is capable of fulfilling His promise in Christ Jesus our Lord. For in this promise, Christ declares us righteous before the Father. In this faith, delivered to us by the Holy Spirit, we trust and cling in the promise as we apply it to ourselves. 

“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count His sin.” Blessed are we.